CCCCI. James Madison: Preface to Debates in the Convention of 1787.[1]
A sketch never finished nor applied.
As the weakness and wants of man naturally lead to an association of individuals, under a common authority, whereby each may have the protection of the whole against danger from without, and enjoy in safety within, the advantages of social intercourse, and an exchange of the necessaries & comforts of life: in like manner feeble communities, independent of each other, have resorted to a Union, less intimate, but with common Councils, for the common safety agst. powerful neighbors, and for the preservation of justice and peace among themselves. Ancient history furnishes examples of these confederacies, tho’ with a very imperfect account, of their structure, and of the attributes and functions of the presiding Authority. There are examples of modern date also, some of them still existing, the modifications and transactions of which are sufficiently known.
It remained for the British Colonies, now United States, of North America, to add to those examples, one of a more interesting character than any of them: which led to a system without a precedent ancient or modern, a system founded on popular rights, and so combing. a federal form with the forms of indivual Republics, as may enable each to supply the defects of the other and obtain the advantages of both—
Whilst the Colonies enjoyed the protection of the parent country as it was called, against foreign danger; and were secured by its superintending controul, against conflicts among themselves, they continued independente of each other, under a common, tho’ limited dependence, on the parental Authority. When the growth of the offspring in strength and in wealth, awakened the jealousy and tempted the avidity of the parent, into schemes of usurpation & exaction, the obligation was felt by the former of uniting their counsels, and efforts to avert the impending calamity.
As early as the year 1754, indications having been given of a design in the Brittish Government to levy contributions on the Col-
- ↑ The heading was crossed out by Madison, but it forms a good title to the paper. This document is a rough draft, evidently written by Madison near the close of his life (see the next to the last paragraph). There are many interlineations and double readings, which would have been removed by the final revision Madison was never able to give it. The editor has accordingly treated this document more freely than any other in this work in the attempt to render it serviceable. The text here printed is taken from the Documentary History of the Constitution, III, 1–7, 796 et seq.; some of the notes have been lost since Gilpin first printed it in 1840, and those gaps have been filled from the Gilpin edition.
